How can i archive Office365 in-place archive into PST

Question

One of my client has an in-place archive enabled, and it is about to be full. I think the simplest solution would be to simply download it all as PST, and then store the PST on premise for future use, and empty the in-place archive.

My issue is, that i can't find any info on how to download the in-place archive as PST. I can't see it in the Outlook, and i can't find option for it in webmail, or the admin panel.

Answer 1

Downloading the contents of an in-place archive mailbox as PST directly from Outlook or the webmail interface might not be a straightforward option as these interfaces primarily focus on accessing the active mailbox. However, you can achieve this using PowerShell commands to export the contents of the in-place archive mailbox to a PST file. Here's how you can do it:

Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell: Before you begin, you'll need to connect to Exchange Online PowerShell using the appropriate administrative credentials. You can do this by installing the Exchange Online Management module and running the necessary cmdlets to connect.

Export Archive Mailbox to PST: Once connected, you can use the New-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet to export the contents of the in-place archive mailbox to a PST file. Here's an example command:

New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox <ArchiveMailboxIdentity> -IsArchive -FilePath "\\Server\Share\ArchiveMailbox.pst"

Replace <ArchiveMailboxIdentity> with the identity of the archive mailbox you want to export. You also need to specify the file path where you want to save the PST file.

1. Monitor Export Progress: The export request will be queued, and you can monitor its progress using the Get-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet:

Get-MailboxExportRequest

Once the export request completes, you can download the PST file from the specified file path.

1. Remove Export Request (Optional): After you have downloaded the PST file, you can remove the export request to clean up:

powershellCopy code
Remove-MailboxExportRequest -Identity <RequestIdentity>

Replace <RequestIdentity> with the identity of the export request you want to remove.

Remember to replace placeholders such as <ArchiveMailboxIdentity> and <RequestIdentity> with actual values as per your environment.

Please note that exporting mailbox data, especially from archive mailboxes, may take a considerable amount of time depending on the size of the data and network bandwidth. Make sure to plan accordingly and consider any compliance or regulatory requirements before performing such actions.